Cost of keeping a cow

[ChrisB]

Open a checking account, just for your farm. Let the only money you put it, be from cattle sales. Let the only checks you write be for cattle expenses. You'll always know exactly how much you lost farming. It'll even slow your spending down to a trickle.

This is what I do. When I try to come up with a cost per head, I haven't figured out a good way to figure equipment and fencing. For example, if I bought a tractor in 2005 for $50,000 that is used for, planting corn, baling hay, feeding cows, on a tmr mixer for feedlot etc. how do you get an accurate number to apply to the cost to keep a cow? I guess you could keep track of each hour you spend on the tractor and apply it to that enterprise. But how many years does that get spread out? I could depreciate it over 5 years, but what happens if I still have that tractor in year 10? Do I have to go back and adjust my numbers for each previous year since instead of $10,000 per year it is actually $5000? And then in year 11 I sell it for $20,000 so do I go back and adjust numbers again? If you figure dozens of pieces of equipment and miles of fencing, corrals, squeeze chutes, ... I really don't understand how some people can nail it down to an exact number.

 

[talltimber]

I tried figuring mine last year. No land cost or lost opportunity value figured in. This is family ground that I run for the upkeep. I would have the upkeep anyway, so it is included (bushhogging, spraying, road upkeep, fence building/repair, erosion control, pasture maintenance, waterer installs, etc.). No insurance or electric included, would probably add another 100 plus? No hay, fertilizer costs encountered yet, so not included here. Salvage on 2 cows is included, loss of one.

Direct cattle costs and farm maintenance was around the 500 mark. I am about half stocked, which hurts me on the fixed costs/hd. I think I can get it down to high 3, low 400's carrying a full load, counting what I'm counting now. Hay/fertilize/lime/insurance to add to that.

No land cost
no hay cost
half stocked
no insurance
no electric
no equipment

Lots to add.

 

[angus9259]

I'm in the variable cost range of $600-800 / year depending on how the pasture does each year - highest cost is hay. I buy all my own hay and rotational graze. As has been noted - on a good year I'm still feeding hay 5-6 months. I vaccinate religiously and use good mineral. Keep in mind, vaccinating one cow costs the same as vaccinating 10.

 

[bball]

Open a checking account, just for your farm. Let the only money you put it, be from cattle sales. Let the only checks you write be for cattle expenses. You'll always know exactly how much you lost farming. It'll even slow your spending down to a trickle.

Straight truth right there BF. Makes it very easy to tally up assets and liabilities. I save each and every receipt..no matter how trivial. It is possible to figure it down to the nickel from year to year.
As far as labor goes, well, I work for REAL cheap. My boys actally get paid better than I do. But, then again, when I figure how much money the cows SAVE me that I don't have to spend on anger mgmt/psych therapy, marriage counseling, mental health meds, gym memberships, and who knows what other problems I would have without them...well, I can't afford not to have them!

 

[tdc_cattle]

My costs are rediculously low. My hay ground is the water ways from my row crop ground. They get plenty if fertility from run off so no fert cost. Fuel to mow and rake isn't much and I pay $10 to a friend to bale it. Borrowing a hay trailer costs me a case of miller lite. So I put my hay costs, mow rake, bale, haul at $15 per 5x6 bale. So less then $100 in hay. I am not putting down p & k on my pasture, figuring I'm getting them from they hay I'm feeding. So the cost of 40 units of N. Working costs and vet costs is close to $50. I grind corn out if the bin so even if you figure 2 pounds a day, which it's less, that's $50 per year. I don't figure anything for my labor. He'll last year in my entire farming opperation I lost money so my time was worthless. Land payment is close to $100 an acre and I'm stocked at one pair per acre of pasture.

The moco and rake have been paid off for years and I haven't had much in the way of repairs on them so u don't really figure them as a cost. The tractors are paid for and already own for row crop so I generally just cost them to the row crop. Truck the same way. There's some fencing costs as well, $10 per head?

I figure close to $300 per head, but I don't cost a lot if things that I have anyway and are paid off.

 

[tdc_cattle]

My costs will go up if I get bigger. I've got a second herd that I purchased last year. They aren't paid for so I have the loan payment on them but the pasture rent is my labor helping the owner on his farm so that $100 is gone. The bake rings and feed bunks I use are free from when my grandpa died 30 years ago and they got put in the barn.

 

[Supa Dexta]

So no machinery cost... But then the day your tractor blows up and the mower fly's apart you need 100k in a pinch.

 

[tdc_cattle]

100,000? My equipment isn't nearly that expensive. I bought the moco and rake two years before I had cattle. I baled off two farms that we were going to start row cropping and I sold almost 20k in hay. Moco cost me $2800 on an auction. I've replaced the knives once and one $1000 shaft the first year. Tube of greese is all I've had in it the last two years. RakeI bought for $1500, one used tire and greese is all the expense I've ever had with it. If they both quit tomorrow Theve more then paid for themselves from the hay I sold before I even had cows. I expensed them on my taxes the first year so there is no depreciation.

Tractors that I use for hay and feeding hay I do have more expenses in. Not much been pretty lucky and been able to fix everything myself. Cattle are 5% of the hours I put on the tractor but it's easier for me to just keep it all on the row crop side.

I don't think I can expand and keep my costs that low. I don't have anymore waterways to bale so that expense would go up. I'd love to have a newer stock trailer. Love to have a squeeze chute instead of using the neighbors, need to have a better coral.

Mostly I'm using my existing resources to keep my costs low. Most people starting aren't going to have a lot if the resources I can take advantage of. Maximizing my resources Is one of the reasons I wanted to get into cattle.

 

[Bigfoot]

Absolutely no way to calculate opportunity cost, but my opportunity cost are rising. Of all the things I have done in my life on the side for money, I like cattle the most, and it pays the least. Slowly but surely, I have phased out other things, by choosing to focus on cattle. That number, although impossible to figure, is an expense.

 

[pappy6]

A couple of years ago when I took a master beef producer class they gave out sheet that showed costs per cow per year to be $753...in Tennessee...when doing my taxes I asked my CPA what his cost was as he has a 100 cow reg Angus herd...he stated $480 with no land, labor, or interest costs added...everyones willvary somewhat.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Absolutely no way to calculate opportunity cost, but my opportunity cost are rising. Of all the things I have done in my life on the side for money, I like cattle the most, and it pays the least. Slowly but surely, I have phased out other things, by choosing to focus on cattle. That number, although impossible to figure, is an expense.

Bigfoot, I get the feeling that you're telling MY story :nod:

 

[hillbilly beef man]

Year end and year out I my costs are close to $700 per cow. This is figuring everything from depreciation on trucks and tractors to depreciation on fences. Most people have no clue just how much money they have tied up in just fence. Even though you might not have built any in a while, the replacement cost will come some day. For example, I can get a 6 strand barb wire fence built for $3 a foot. I figure a 25 year life on the fence. I figure each foot of fence is costing me $.12 per foot per year. If you figure how many feet of fence you have on a place this adds up. Between my place and dads we have 44,000 ft of fence. With the .12 per foot this equals $5280 a year just to keep the cows in.

 

[Dragstang]

Can't keep from wondering how long the family farm can stay viable. I went into my venture knowing it was a (labor of love) and that is with buying all worn out junk to run the farm. Just running the #s I don't know how anyone makes a prophet. the value of land is just too high. Around here, the only way i see farming on any level making a profit is to rent land and lots of it.

 

[Bigfoot]

Can't keep from wondering how long the family farm can stay viable. I went into my venture knowing it was a (labor of love) and that is with buying all worn out junk to run the farm. Just running the #s I don't know how anyone makes a prophet. the value of land is just too high. Around here, the only way i see farming on any level making a profit is to rent land and lots of it.

IMHO, if it wasn't for the love of raising the animal, we would import almost every bite of beef in to the United States.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

Absolutely no way to calculate opportunity cost, but my opportunity cost are rising. Of all the things I have done in my life on the side for money, I like cattle the most, and it pays the least. Slowly but surely, I have phased out other things, by choosing to focus on cattle. That number, although impossible to figure, is an expense.

I could rent out my land for Christmas trees and make as much per acre on rent as what I am making on cattle, but I do not think I would enjoy sitting on the porch watching trees grow.

 

[Stocker Steve]

$765.54 per cow is what it cost here last year. But the cows also pay for all the deer expenses.

What does it cost to keep a deer ?

 

[Stocker Steve]

Cows, heifers, replacement heifers, and bulls all lumped together. $657 hd
$657 + $80 hd for capital, fuel, maintenance, vet and other misc. expenses = $737 hd
adding labor pushes the cost per calf weaned per cow exposed to well over $900

But they are forecasting $800 calves this fall...

 

[Stocker Steve]

Tractors that I use for hay and feeding hay I do have more expenses in. Not much been pretty lucky and been able to fix everything myself. Cattle are 5% of the hours I put on the tractor but it's easier for me to just keep it all on the row crop side.

I don't think I can expand and keep my costs that low. I don't have anymore waterways to bale so that expense would go up. I'd love to have a newer stock trailer. Love to have a squeeze chute instead of using the neighbors, need to have a better coral.

Mostly I'm using my existing resources to keep my costs low. Most people starting aren't going to have a lot if the resources I can take advantage of. Maximizing my resources Is one of the reasons I wanted to get into cattle.

You nailed it. Cows can be very profitable as row crop residue recyclers. A current problem for most areas is that there is not a profit in row crop.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I include everything I spend that I wouldn't spend if I wasn't farming.

IMO that's the way it should be done. Obviously the more animals you have the lower the fixed cost go. Ive seen numbers all over the board with most being between 400 and 500

Last year for me was one of the cheapest in years.
Main reason for that is stockpiled hay carried over.
Came in at a 1.38 a day that will be higher this year as I need a few replacements
as well building my hay reserves back up, expect this year to come in around 1.75 a day.
Already have this years hay order in.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Last year for me was one of the cheapest in years.
Main reason for that is stockpiled hay carried over.
Came in at a 1.38 a day that will be higher this year as I need a few replacements
as well building my hay reserves back up, expect this year to come in around 1.75 a day.

The bean counters have always said that we must adjust for inventory changes and herd size changes and real depreciation to have a reasonable yearly per cow profit picture.
And, now the natural cycle guys are saying that we must adjust for soil building and environmental impacts and ...
Then you have the different per cow vs. per acre profit pictures.
I am fingurin on figurin this out soon. :dunce: